Half of Turkey’s population says their way of life is under threat

Half of Turkey’s population said their way of life is under threat, according to a September survey by leading Turkish polling company, MetroPOLL.

A total of 50 percent of respondents said “Yes” when asked whether if they think that their way of lives are under threat in Turkey, while 47.6 percent said “No”, the research showed.

“In my opinion, the part of the society which is increasingly concerned about their way of life is not the religious and the head scarved people who have settled in the farthest part of the public institutions, but the modern, secular and modern conservative individuals,” said Ozer Sencer, the head of the pollster who shared the results of the poll via social media on Sunday.

Sencer warned that such concern is growing,

Kanımca, toplumun yaşamları ile ilgili giderek endişeleri artan kesimi kamumun en uç kesimine kadar yerleşen dindar ve başörtülüler değil modern, seküler ve modern muhafazakar fertleridir. Ve bu endişe giderek artmaktadır. pic.twitter.com/YhP5GVfJAA

— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) October 9, 2022

Turkey’s opposition circles blame Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for trying to force Islamic values on the secular nation. Since it came to power in 2002, the AKP has pursued a policy of elevating the role of Islam in Turkey by building thousands of new mosques and Islamic schools. AKP more than quadrupled the Directorate of Religious Affairs’ budget in 20 years of its governance, sparking criticism that the country’s top religious body is used by Erdogan as a tool of soft power.